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UnityC#OculusEdTech

Transfr: VR Education at Scale

Building VR simulations for career education and training reaching 100,000+ customers.

Role

Senior XR Designer

Company

Transfr ↗

Timeline

3+ years.

The Challenge

Building highly effective, standardized career exploration and training simulations that could serve diverse populations—from high school students to incarcerated individuals undergoing workforce rehabilitation.

The Impact

Reached 100,000+ users nationwide, building over 15 unique career simulations for the Trek VR library and actively developing the proprietary SDK that enabled Transfr's VR production at massive scale.

The Mission: Building Pathways to Upward Mobility

At Transfr, the goal was to build a direct bridge from the classroom to a career. I served as a Senior Technical Designer leading the design and development of over 15 distinct VR simulations, covering a wide array of technical trades - from automotive technicians to pipefitting specialists. These modules were deployed in high school classrooms and workplace facilities across the U.S., providing thousands of students with the trade skills necessary for economic advancement.

My responsibilities:

  • Coordinating with instruction designer, technical artists and sound designers to build the scene in Unity and developing the simulation logic using the Transfr SDK.
  • Collaborate with SDK developers to improve the tooling and features to build VR simulations like interaction templates, nodes and components, voice-over generation. NPC animations, and more.
  • Solve design problems unique to each career and training simulation and provide a seamless UX experience in XR.

Bridging Design, Product, and Engineering

We were not only building the car but also the factory while building the car. In this effort, I collaborated with multi-disciplinary teams to build and refine Transfr’s proprietary SDK (in Unity) and XR interaction system for training. I helped the company scale from building single prototypes to a library of enterprise-grade VR simulations. These are a few of my contributions.

  • XR Standardization at Scale: I helped translate complex, real-world physical interactions - like operating a CNC machine or handling specialized laboratory tools - into standardized XR interaction patterns.
  • Product and Engineering: I helped drive the SDK’s development, which enabled us to maintain high-quality visual and instructional standards across every module, through proprietary tools like Node Flow Studio and Asset Manager.
  • Production Workflows: Beyond design, I focused on system design and building AI-driven workflows to scale production, connect verticals and increase the efficiency of our simulation development.

Real-World Impact & Efficacy

The true value of these simulations was validated through rigorous testing and real-world deployment.

  • Learning Gains: Efficacy studies demonstrated that the simulations we built often resulted in higher learning gains than traditional real-world practice alone.
  • Human-Centric Design: By facilitating continuous user testing and feedback loops, I ensured that our tools evolved alongside the needs of the learners they served.
  • National Reach: With over 100,000 customers using these tools throughout the U.S., we successfully proved that immersive technology could be a primary driver for workforce development and vocational education.